Charles Bock (Beautiful Children), in a recent interview, sounding perturbed: "Where are you right now? I’m in a writer’s room in Manhattan. There’s all these other people with their fucking computers doing their stupid little bullshit. It feels pointless. You wanna feel like it matters. It’s hard to do that when you’re in a room like this. At least it’s quiet."

At the LARB, Anne Trubek quotes Lionel Trilling in a review of The Sonand American Rust, the two books published thus far by New Yorker20 Under 40 alumPhillipp Meyer. “In the American metaphysic,” Trilling wrote in his essay "Reality in America," “reality is always material reality, hard, resistant, unformed, impenetrable, and unpleasant.” Those of you who read our pieces on both books may be able to guess why the quote is relevant.

In one of the most delightful photography projects of late, authors have dressed up as their favorite children's book characters for Cambridge Jones's26 Characters exhibition at The Story Museum. Neil Gaimanlooks particularly dashing as Badger from The Wind in the Willows. The exhibition will run from April 5 to November 2 in Oxford, U.K.